Dove's Character Bio 2012
by Raven's secret-keeper
Summary: Timid half-sister to Raven, Dove finally has the biography she deserves; have five years of struggle finally paid off? Be warned, it's thorough. Characters listed are integral, not spotlit. Thoughts and reviews are deeply appreciated.
1. The Basics

_**A brief author's note**: I've struggled to create a decent and accurate bio of Dove for years. After the evolution she's undergone, especially through the current story (that would be Mindquest II), and upon realizing that her previous bio was just hopelessly lost and a revamp wasn't nearly enough, I finally broke down and rewrote it completely. And finally, I could represent her as an individual character and not some strange alternate-reality version of Raven. Five years in the making, and it is here... at least. A Dove bio I can be proud of._

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**Name: **Dove

**Alias: **The closest she has is Yona (or Yonan), the Azarathean version of her name. Her mother was the only person to have ever called her that, besides her dearest and only childhood friend, Srentha; it has become a name to incite emotion.

**Age: **Thus far between 14 and 16; it depends on which story.

**Gender: **Female.

**Height: **Somewhere between 5'2" and 5'4. I have no idea exactly how tall she is, but she's just a bit shorter than Raven but taller than Beast Boy.

**Weight: **At the moment, it just barely falls under 'less than healthy.' Usually she's on the slimmer/average side of the scale, but recent events have waned her appetite to almost nothing. Her build looks pretty immature until she's around 18, 19 years old.

**Other details:** Her hair is blond and her eyes look like a deep purple from a distance, but look closely enough, and they're actually blue overshadowed by faint red - like viewing a blue wall through red-stained glass. (The dark, midnight blue color comes from her mother's eyes, and it's "corrupted" by the red in her father's.)  
Her dress is simple, pure white with a black silk strap across the waist - but the design is highly customized and hard to describe; in short, it's designed for escape and security, and for comfort.

**Alignment: **She generally avoids frays, conflicts, and especially battles thanks to her blood-bred pacifism, but the thought of doing anything evil disgusts and horrifies her, and she's a hero for sure. (Though she thinks she has too weak of a heart to succeed, she fights alongside the Titans with pride and compassion if something she cares for is at stake. And she definitely cares about innocent people who could otherwise be hurt. When she's dedicated, she can be one of the most passionate members on the team. Unfortunately the momentum of her confidence is also easy to break; she has unsteady self-esteem that leads her to question herself and her decisions for a few years. She grows out of it, don't worry.)

**Powers: **The only ability she has efficient control over is her telepathy; she can read minds, send her thoughts to another's mind, combine those for mental conversation, and read memories. She's also been able to manipulate perception from the inside, but she has only ever used that ability once, when in the thralls of her darkest side, and she avoids it whenever possible. She has empathic abilities (though far weaker than Raven's), poorly controlled telekinesis and levitation, and the ability to project astral energies - she's best at random streams and they're more often manifested when she loses control over herself. She also harbors an as-of-yet untapped potential for magic, and a completely uncontrollable precognitive ability. (Almost every woman on her mother's side of the family was a scryer, after all.) She once partially projected her soul-self, but it was a move taken purely out of absolute desperation, and so far she is unable to repeat the motion.

**Bio: **There's a lot to Dove's story, but the condensed version goes something like this: Dove's ancestors had lived on Azarath for scores of generations. Eventually Magena, Dove's grandmother, gave the Azaratheans no choice but to banish her for resisting tradition and threatening their so-upkept peace. She left for Earth, already carrying her husband's child. It was there that Alerina [Dove's mother] was born, and Magena raised her in the isolation of an uncharted island somewhere in the Pacific. Alerina grew into a hopeless romantic, and when she was given the chance for romance, she eagerly took it: Trigon appeared on the island disguised as a young man, with his ego stoked by the success of Raven's birth, and Alerina fell prey to his manipulations and was soon betrayed by her own instincts; Dove was conceived and the truth was revealed. Magena had heard her scream and managed to spare Alerina the horrors that befell Arella during and after Raven's conception, but she didn't have any way to save Alerina from the pregnancy. And Alerina had wanted a child so badly, she refused to end its life. Skipping through long nights of pain, scrying, and debate, Magena eventually sent Alerina back to Azarath, and when Trigon tried to follow her, Magena intercepted him in the interdimensional pathway and lost her life to keep her daughter and unborn grandchild alive.

On Azarath, Alerina was embraced (though warily once she told them who her mother was), and she chose to live on the fringes of the Azarathean society; she was unable to hide her pregnancy for obvious reasons, but her mother's scrying had revealed to them the first moments of Raven's life, when the child had been taken from her mother, and Alerina refused to let them take her own child. When Dove was born, Alerina told everyone that it was a miscarriage, her claim complete with a falsified emotional breakdown - and so Dove's life was one shrouded in secrecy and lies from the very beginning.

Her mother was constantly casting spells of protection and discreet manipulation to keep Dove from being discovered; Alerina had inherited her mother's aptitude for magic and it was innate as instinct. Dove, however, grew up with no kind of training, and thus her abilities often flew wildly out of control. The only "training" Alerina could offer her was the meager pieces of advice she had seen or heard about Raven's training. (Raven's existence and training was no secret in Azarath.) Alerina refused to let anyone else see her daughter, knowing that the moment she was discovered, Dove would be taken away to live with Azar, and over the years it became painfully clear that she could never let that happen. Dove was denied most human interaction as a result, but Raven was denied all emotion, even denied the touch of her own mother's love. Yet she was also an object of terror and abhorred across Azarath. Alerina simply couldn't live to see that happen to her own child.

Eventually Dove's presence would catch the attention of another child her age - but that story is a bit long and complicated... To shorten and summarize, he was tagging along with his grandfather, who came to check up on Alerina. The boy was left alone in a separate room as the adults talked, soon noticed Dove, and coaxed her out of hiding; he reassured her, and they played and wallowed in the company with joy and gratitude - both children lived lonely lives; Dove in near-solitude and the other was a priority student in the magics of Azarath, so most of his interaction was with spell-scrolls and private tutors. Their friendship was inevitable. They would often meet in secret overnight, since Dove herself was a secret and though her friend was trustworthy, Dove didn't want her mother to worry any more than she already did. She'd panic if she knew someone had found her...

His name was Srentha; but his story is to be told separately, and elsewhere. _{{ Feel free to find it on my user page. }}_

Dove was about 14 years old when the vision came. The usual oblivion of meditation was interrupted by flying images, of fire, and death, and Earth, and searing pains and horrors unimaginable - a psychic snapshot of what the death of Azarath would feel like if she stayed to suffer through.

Once the visions let her free, Dove - terrified, breathless, and shaken to the depths of her soul - knew what it meant, and couldn't bear to see what would happen if Trigon came to Azarath - and discovered her existence. She didn't want him to _take _her.

She packed, clung to her mother in their final embrace of farewell, and headed for the Dimensional Doorway, following her mother's instructions to travel and using her instincts to choose which path to follow.

Raven would live. That much was foretold. But Dove wasn't even meant to _exist_; her only guide could be the faintest images she had caught in the vision, chilling yet somehow promising...

And she ended up on Earth.

{{ I'm not quite clear about what happens while Dove is there and The End of the World happens... I have a hunch though. In the comics, there were TWO "rings of Azar" (Raven wears them and both were used in the Terror of Trigon story), and we only see what happens to _one _in the show, so I think it's possible that the other Ring might have been a family heirloom, maybe something Dove's mother had advised her to take on her journey. Magena was highly skilled and pretty close to Azar while on Azarath... }}

For six months Dove wandered, desperately homesick, afraid, and more lost than anything... Trying to survive, and all the while trying to control her growing abilities, and avoid interaction with others; the balance was nearly impossible. And by the time she finds the Titans, after those long six months, she's near starved and far from healthy.

_{{ My fanfictions begin upon Dove's arrival. }}_

And since it's so relevant to the stories, I'll summarize her life in Titans' Tower: Raven has taken the responsibility of training her, Dove is still getting used to that (Raven wasn't exactly thrilled at the thought either), and the details vary from stage to stage. Nightmares, loss of control, and the occasional tension have all happened - along with relief, resolution, and the occasional shock.

And because it's so integral to any character's development, I think it's only right to add a short "**Personality**" section: In summary, Dove is timid, shy, and hesitant most of the time, but once her passion gets going, she'll persevere with a quiet sort of dedication all the way to the death, and though her lifelong isolation crippled her socially, she tries her hardest to not be afraid. She's nervous, but friendly.

Once she's at ease around someone, though, she's calm and soft spoken, and her words can be powerful in the right situation. She's also susceptible to sympathy and guilt; she has empathic abilities similar to Raven, but only receptive (that means she can't manipulate emotions or seek out fears as Raven might), and she never learned how to build shields against it. (So she's easily overwhelmed; when that happens, her response is usually to flee. As a teen, she'll usually ask for Raven to help calm her down, but once she's older she can handle it herself and doesn't need to rely on Raven's guidance.)

After the current fanfic, she discovers how desperately she wants to protect people and how horrible the thought of HURTING someone really is... She learns how much she wants to protect them (and atone for what happens in the story), and she begins showing that, anxious as she is, she has the mettle to fight back her fears and help the people in need.

As she grows, Dove shows great capacity for self-sacrifice and bravery, though she'd blush lightly and deny it - with a small smile.


	2. Reminiscence, Reviews, and Responses

_To Dove's first reviewers:_

Perchance those of you who've disabled PMs should pass: I know it takes some people a lot of courage to write a critical review, and I appreciate so deeply the time you were willing to spend reviewing the bio of a character from some little-known author in such a widely varying realm as Teen Titans fanfictions.

I simply couldn't understand why my timid little fear-filled character was being called such a Mary Sue - at first because I didn't understand what that meant - yet even after I learned, I didn't know how to change her status there. But now I understand: I wasn't showing who she is. I wasn't writing about the Dove I see in the scenes of these stories and wasn't showing enough of who she is, rather than WHAT she is. Not to mention I didn't even know my own character well enough to portray her on the level she deserves.

And then, after enough AP English classes and realizing that *how* I write something has as much impact on what the reader sees as - if not more than - the meaning itself, and after six or seven years of getting to know her, I finally know how to portray the girl I've come to understand. It's been a process, but I've finally arrived somewhere I'm comfortable with and I profiled a modern, updated, accurate, revamped, reworked, and infinitely better version than the Dove I'd described five years ago.

Again, the story is here, and I'd be infinitely grateful if you'd be willing to take a second look... and maybe even let me know what you think.

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Redcap55, janedoe91170, and Alpha Man 2.0: There's so much I want to tell you, so much I'd like to discuss, but there's no way for me to reply to your reviews.

I wrote them anyways. Just in case. (Random bypassers: These are all in regards to reviews from Dove's _old_ bio. I promise you, it's terrible - read it at your own risk.)

**Redcap55:**

Trust me. There's been plenty of organic "re-thinking who she is", especially in recent years!

You wrote "The people of Azarath are pacifists, not cowards"... I hate to admit it, but Dove actually is a bit of a coward.

And what you offered, about her being afraid of what's on Earth: it certainly rang true. The poor girl spent a handful of months nearly starving and terrified to so much as speak to people, thanks to being kept a secret all her life... I haven't written those scenes out in fully-publishable form yet - but they're floating around in my head and manifested on random notes; I just need the right reason to tell them...

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**janedoe91170:**

Wow, your review was the most honest and detailed and brutal one on this page. THANK YOU! I can't remember if it was your review or the realization that crossing the Pacific Ocean requires money, a boat, and probably speaking Japanese and a passport (all things an interdimensional immigrant shouldn't rightfully have) that made me completely erase that part of her history...

And don't worry, with enough writing and exploring her character in different situations, I've found that Dove has more personality flaws than I ever wanted to admit on a published bio. (...being more than "none", at least. Shyness, cowardice - you get the idea.)

As far as writing poetry being a self-insert quality: that was a genuine conicidence. I imagined her being a bit of a writer (in short, sporadic bursts) before I knew *I* wanted to write poetry.

...I don't remember if I properly replied to your review with the not-specifically-Dove-related points, but why not, while I'm at it.

"And she has a faithful, very unusual pet she carries around everywhere." (My reasoning behind that was: In Azarath, doves are the only animal I've ever seen from both the show and the comic - they weren't very unusual for her situation... In fact it only seemed natural. Lonely children often attach themselves to any animal that tolerates their company.)

And, I hate to say it because I wasn't too fond of the storyline, but Raven having half-siblings is canon - and lots of them. Why shouldn't one of them happen to be worthy of turning into an original character?

And, as I'm so fond of pointing out, I worked very, very hard on her backstory to work it around comic canon (as Marv Wolfman wrote it, anyways), that Raven was the only one of those half-siblings to survive... Trust me when I say this, I'm so annoyed by all these "twins that were separated at birth" and "brother on Azarath that you just never saw in the show". Ghh. At least Dove's background/heritage/reason has some texture and sense to it.

*Trust* me. ...Or read the new bio, I certainly won't mind that either.

Sorry, that grew longer than I meant it to be... But, ah, well, you picked out so many flaws and sounded so (vaguely) hopeful that I'm curious what you think of her new and more-improved-than-I-can-express bio.

Thank you so much for your time (I know this long message probably took quite a bit of it),  
~Raven's secret-keeper

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**Alpha Man 2.0:**

I don't think I responded to your review yet... (After five years, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that!) What made it seem closer to the comics than the show? I found that odd because - yes, I'm a huge fan of the 1980's New Teen Titans series - but I write my fanfictions more for the show (canon characters' personality especially)... I just needed comic history to delve deeply enough into Dove's past, since there really isn't much history at all for any of the characters in the show. The most we ever saw was bits and pieces of the past coming back to haunt them... without much of an explanation at all. A quick summary and then on with the plot!

Anyways, back to your review (let it be known that Dove's character has undergone HUGE changes since you posted it): "The best suggestion I can think of is to have Dove's character accentuate Raven's, not dominate it." Unfortunately I think that's something only my fully-written stories can show... The interaction between Raven and Dove isn't the kind between a clone and the genitor; you have a timid and helpless girl who's a dangerous telepath and she knows it, not to mention she was denied most human interaction in her life - with the only person in any world that could possibly help her not being very talkative or happy to spend hours a day training and focusing her attention on her little sister, not being the maternal type by nature. Raven's confidence especially on the subject of power juxtaposes Dove's lack of self-esteem pretty vividly, now that you've got me thinking about it... (The original version of Unforeseen Surprises - which I realize desperately needs renamed - only skimmed that interaction, but I'm in the process of rewriting it, and that will probably show much more clearly once I've revamped it completely.)

And on that point about making her different from Raven: ...I think I might've demonstrated at least SOME difference here (in this message alone)! I mean, even in my earliest Dove story, she was stuttering and cutting herself off and babbling apologies for every little mistake... In recent stories that shyness and lack of confidence and fear have really come through, but it's always been there. Just... not very well written.

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_(Alas. Why is it that the three most in-depth reviewers, the three I'd be most eager to share this revamp with, were the three that I cannot contact...)_

Hopefully new reviewers will step up and take their place - and if you're willing, you will have my eternal thanks!


End file.
